Otvoren 29. Sarajevo Film Festival The 29th Sarajevo Film Festival is open
FESTIVAL DAILY
SUBOTA / SATURDAY 12.8.2023.
www.sff.ba #29thSFF
Bono na otvorenju 29. Sarajevo Film Festivala
Prvu noć 29. Sarajevo Film Festivala, na projekciji filma otvorenja, POLJUBITE BUDUĆNOST Nenada Čičina-Šaina, na festival su stigli Bono i The Edge iz benda U2 s pratnjom, kao gosti iznenađenja i dio ekipe filma! U2 zvijezde su na 29. Sarajevo Film Festival stigli u pratnji supruga Ali Hewson i Morleigh Stenberg, te modelom i aktivisticom Christy Turlington. Bonova veza sa Sarajevom i Sarajevo Film Festivalom traje dugi niz godina. Na festivalu je bio 2000. i 2021. godine, od kada njegovi dolasci postaju česti, kao znak podrške Festivalu. Bonov rad je prepoznatljiv i kroz aktivizam – njegov nastup na Wembleyju prikazan u filmu POLJUBITE BUDUĆNOST održao se na današnji dan, prije tačno 30 godina. Sarajevo Film Festival ove godine posebnim programom obilježava 30. godišnjicu od Prvog ratnog kina Apollo, kada su se filmovi u gradu pod opsadom gledali u podrumu Akademije scenskih umjetnosti, slaveći obljetnicu vezanu za same početke Festivala. Festival je otvoren filmom POLJUBITE BUDUĆNOST reditelja Nenada Čičina-Šaina, gdje je veliku ulogu odigrao U2 za ratno i postratno Sarajevo i njegove građane. Bill Carter, američki humanitarac koji je živio u Sarajevu, inspirisan lokalnim otporom, u Veroni se 1993. obratio jednom od najvećih svjetskih bendova, U2, kako bi vidio mogu li pomoći u podizanju svjetske svijesti o ratnim razaranjima. Bend je pristao, i tokom ljeta 1993. godine, njihova ZOO TV turneja je uključivala uživo satelitske intervjue sa stanovnicima Sarajeva. Kada su intervjui završili, bend se obavezao nastupiti u gradu nakon rata. POLJUBITE BUDUĆNOST prati priču o tom obećanju i o poslijeratnom koncertu na kojem je U2 23. septembra 1997. godine nastupio pred više od 45.000 fanova u oslobođenom gradu. Taj koncert i danas je kolektivna uspomena za Sarajlije, kao dokaz da nisu samo preživjeli opsadu, nego i da usred strahota proizišlih iz najmračnijih poriva, muzika i umjetnost mogu biti čin pobune i otpora. Ta je misija od početka ugrađena i u temelje Sarajevo Film Festivala.
U2 zvijezde su na 29. Sarajevo Film Festival stigli u pratnji supruga Ali Hewson i Morleigh Stenberg, te modelom i aktivisticom Christy Turlington
At the first night of the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival, the screening of the opening film KISS THE FUTURE by Nenad Čičin-Šain was marked by the arrival of surprise guest and film crew members Bono and The Edge of U2. The U2 stars arrived to the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival, accompanied by their wives Ali Hewson and Morleigh Steinberg, along with model and activist Christy Turlington. Bono’s link to Sarajevo and the Sarajevo Film Festival has persisted for a number of years. After visiting the Festival in 2000 and 2021, he frequently came to Sarajevo in support of our manifestation. Bono’s work is also marked by his activism — U2’s performance at London’s Wembley stadium featured in KISS THE FUTURE was exactly 30 years ago today. This year, the Sarajevo Film Festival commemorates the 30th anniversary of the First Apollo War Cinema, when the city was under siege and audiences gathered to watch films in the basement of the Academy of Dramatic Arts, thus celebrating a jubilee tied to the very inception of the Festival. The festival was opened by KISS THE FUTURE, a film by Nenad Čičin-Šain, in which U2 played a significant role for wartime and post-war Sarajevo and its citizens. Bill Carter was an American aid worker living in Sarajevo who, inspired by this local resistance, reached out to one of the world's biggest bands, U2, to see if they could help raise global awareness of the devastating conflict. The band agreed and, across the summer of 1993, their ZOO TV featured live satellite interviews with local Sarajevans. When these interviews came to an end, the band pledged to perform in the city once the conflict was over. KISS THE FUTURE follows the story of this promise and the post-war concert in which, on September 23rd 1997, U2 performed in front of more than 45.000 fans in the liberated city. This concert still lies in the collective memory of the people of Sarajevo, as proof that they not only survived the siege, but also that in the midst of the horrors produced by the darkest impulses, music and art can be acts of rebellion and resistance. That same mission has, since its inception, been built into the foundation of the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Bono at the opening night of the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival
The U2 stars arrived to the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival, accompanied by their wives Ali Hewson and Morleigh Steinberg, along with model and activist Christy Turlington
Svečanom ceremonijom u Narodnom pozorištu Sarajevo otvoren je 29. Sarajevo Film Festival. Festival je otvoren projekcijom filma POLJUBITE BUDUĆNOST (KISS THE FUTURE) Nenada Čičina-Šaina, čiji scenarij potpisuju Čičin-Šain i Bill Carter. Večerašnjoj ceremoniji otvaranja prisustvovali su članovi ekipe filma POLJUBITE BUDUĆNOST: Nenad Čičin-Šain, Bill Carter, Bono, The Edge, Blake Levin, Sarah Anthony, Drew Vinton, Christiane Amanpour, Ned O’Hanlon, Vesna Andree Zaimović, Senad Zaimović, Mirsad Purivatra, Boris Šiber, Enes Zlatar, Srđan Gino Jevđević, Alma Ćatal, Asja Dupanović, Nurdžahan Rešo, Bradley Stonesifer, Samir Fočo, Eric Burton, Howard Berstein, Molly Butler i Perla Ovadija Mosca. Osim u Narodnom pozorištu Sarajevo, publika je uživala u filmu otvorenja POLJUBITE BUDUĆNOST i u Ljetnom kinu Coca-Cola, Ljetnom kinu Stari Grad i Ljetnom kinu Centar “Safet Zajko”. Filmom POLJUBITE BUDUĆNOST večeras je počeo i program Sarajevo Film Festivala u Mostaru i Tuzli. Projekcije su održane u BH Telecom Ljetnom kinu Mostar i u Bingo Ljetnom kinu Tuzla. Čast da vodi svečanost otvaranja 29. izdanja Sarajevo Film Festivala pripala je mladom glumcu Lazaru Dragojeviću. Na 29. Sarajevo Film Festivalu će biti prikazano 235 filmova u 18 festivalskih programa. U konkurenciji za nagrade Srce Sarajeva je 49 filmova.
Otvoren 29. Sarajevo Film Festival
Počasno Srce Sarajeva uručeno je reditelju Marku Cousinsu kao priznanje za izuzetan doprinos filmskoj umjetnosti.
The 29th Sarajevo Film Festival was opened with a ceremony at the Sarajevo National Theater. The festival opened with a screening of the film KISS THE FUTURE by Nenad Čičin-Šain, whose script was signed by Čičin-Šain and Bill Carter. The opening ceremony was attended by members of the KISS THE FUTURE crew: Nenad Čičin-Šain, Bill Carter, Bono, The Edge, Blake Levin, Sarah Anthony, Drew Vinton, Christiane Amanpour, Ned O'Hanlon, Vesna Andree Zaimović, Senad Zaimović, Mirsad Purivatra, Boris Šiber, Enes Zlatar , Srđan Gino Jevđević, Alma Ćatal, Asja Dupanović, Nurdžahan Rešo, Bradley Stonesifer, Samir Fočo, Eric Burton, Howard Berstein, Molly Butler and Perla Ovadija Mosca. In addition to the Sarajevo National Theater, the audience enjoyed the opening film KISS THE FUTURE in the Coca-Cola Open Air Cinema, the Open Air Cinema Stari Grad and the Open Air Cinema Centar "Safet Zajko". Tonight, the programme of the Sarajevo Film Festival in Mostar and Tuzla began with the film KISS THE FUTURE. Screenings were held in BH Telecom Open Air Cinema Mostar and Bingo Open Air Cinema Tuzla.T he honor of hosting the opening ceremony of the 29th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival went to the young actor Lazar Dragojević. At the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival, 235 films in 18 Festival programmes. There are 49 films in competition for the Heart of Sarajevo awards.
The 29th Sarajevo Film Festival is open
The Honorary Heart of Sarajevo was awarded to the director and writer Mark Cousins, in recognition of their outstanding contribution to film art.
Kako opisujete ovogodišnju selekciju Takmičarskog programa – igrani film? Uzbudljiva, eklektična i drugačija. Predstavljamo 10 filmova i jednu seriju: 8 u konkurenciji i 2 filma izvan konkurencije. Tu su ukupno 4 debitantska filma, te filmovi 5 reditelja i 5 rediteljica. Imamo autore koji se vraćaju u Takmičarski program poput Vladimira Perišića sa LOST COUNTRY i Sudabeh Mortezai sa EUROPOM; autore koje znamo iz drugih selekcija poput Une Gunjak i Tudora Giurgiua, ali i neka imena koja znamo iz vrha regionalne kinematografije poput Dragana Bjelogrlića koji će predstaviti svoj novi film ČUVARI FORMULE. Tu su i neka nova imena poput Andrea Tanasea (TIGRICA) i Christine Ioakeimidi (MEDIJ). Tu su debitantski filmovi TIGRICA, LA PALISIADA, MEDIJ uz EKSKURZIJU. A sve skupa predstavljamo 2 svjetske, 1 međunarodnu i 7 regionalnih premijera te svjetsku premijeru serije RUMI. Po čemu je posebno karakteristična ova selekcija? Živimo u izuzetno turbulentnim vremenima. I to osjećanje je, nažalost, globalno. Ovogodišnja selekcija Tamičarskog programa odražava odnos autora, ne samo prema regiji već i prema svijetu. Baš zbog toga, ovo jeste selekcija regionalnih filmova, ali ona odražava jedan globalni duh vremena u kojem živimo. Prisutne su različite teme od ljubavnih tema, identiteta, globalizacije, smisla života, političke angažiranosti pa sve do odrastanja. Ovu selekciju karakteriziraju izuzetno jaki junaci i junakinje, kao i način na koji nam autori bez imalo zadrške dozvoljavaju da im se približimo. Ne postoji distanciranost, nego smo potpuno emotivno uvučeni u svaku pojedinačnu priču filmova u ovogodišnjoj selekciji. Mnogo debitanskih ostvarenja prošlo je proteklih godina kroz selekciju Takmičarski program – igrani film Sarajevo Film Festivala. Zašto filmski autori biraju Sarajevo kao početno mjesto za svoje filmove? Sarajevo Film Festival se pokazao kao odličan festival za plasman regionalnih filmova, osobito za autore debitante. No, ne možemo reći da je i sam program na taj način profiliran. Ove godine od 10 filmova (od kojih se 8 takmiči za nagrade Srce Sarajeva), 4 filma su debitantska i to TIGRICA, LA PALISIADA, MEDIJ i EKSKURZIJA. No, uz malo iskusnije reditelje, ovo je i dalje program relativno mladih autora. Selektorica ste i Takmičarskog programa – kratki film. Koje teme su bile u fokusu interesovanja njihovih autora? To je zapravo oduvijek bila još jedna eklektična selekcija. Kratka forma je ostala mjesto eksperimentisanja, mjesto slobode za autore koji prave kratke filmove i to se odražava i u ovoj selekciji. Ove godine donosimo 10 kratkih filmova koji predstavljaju 10 različitih svjetova. Ova selekcija predstavlja lijep presjek stanja u regionalnoj produkciji kratkog filma. Digitalna tehnologija je donijela svojevrsnu renesansu posebno u produkciji kratkog filma koji nastavlja postojati kao prostor u kojem autori mogu u potpunosti istražiti svoju kreativnu slobodu. Upravo ta sloboda je prisutna u svim filmovima ovogodišnje selekcije. Kako biste okarakterizirali bosanskohercegovačku kinematografiju? I dalje smo izuzetno nestabilni, no ipak ove godine imamo nekoliko filmova u Takmičarskom programu. Tu je kratki film mladog reditelja Alena Šimića SVJEDOK, te debitantski film rediteljice Une Gunjak EKSKURZIJA koji će prije Sarajeva imati premijeru na filmskom festivalu u Locarnu. Pored toga, i u drugim programima prikazat ćemo nekoliko bh. Filmova, a tu je i cijeli program od 70 naslova iz BiH ili o BiH, a to je BH Film Program, koji organizira Udruženje filmskih radnika BiH. S druge strane, imamo procvat u produkciji televizijskih serija, tako da je industrija i dalje izuzetno aktivna, no i dalje se ne snima dovoljno filmova u BiH. Osim Une Gunjak, gotovo da nema debitanata što je velika šteta. Sljedeće godine održat će se 30. Sarajevo Film Festival. Budi li taj jubilej u Vama neke posebne emocije i uspomene? Naravno, na festivalu sam od samog početka tako da će 30. godina Sarajevo Film Festivala nositi i profesionalne i lične uspomene i emocije. No, sigurno mogu reći da sam ponosna što sam dio ekipe Sarajevo Film Festivala koji mijenja ne samo lice našeg grada i države, već i same regije pa i šire.
Intervju sa Elmom Tataragić, selektoricom Takmičarskog programa – igrani film i Takmičarskog programa – kratki film
Ovogodišnji izbor odražava stavove autora prema svijetu
INTERVJU
How do you describe this year's competition programme – feature film? Exciting, eclectic and different. We are presenting 10 films and one series: 8 in competition and 2 films out of competition. There are a total of 4 debut films, as well as films by 5 male directors and 5 female directors. We have authors returning to the Competition programme, such as Vladimir Perišić with the LOST COUNTRY, Sudabeh Mortezai with EUROPE; authors we know from other selections such as Una Gunjak and Tudor Giurgiu, but also some names we know from the top of regional cinema such as Dragan Bjelogrlić who will present his new film GUARDIANS OF THE FORMULA. There are also some new names like Andre Tanase (DAY OF THE TIGER) and Christine Ioakeimidi (MEDIUM). There are the debut films DAY OF THE TIGER, LA PALISIADA, MEDIUM with EXCURSION. All in all, we are presenting two world premieres, one international premiere and seven regional premieres and world premiere of series RUMI. Is there anything special about this selection? We live in extremely turbulent times. And that feeling, unfortunately, is global. This year's selection of the Competition programme reflects the author's attitude not only towards the region but also towards the world. That is why this selection is a selection of regional films, but it reflects the one global spirit of the time in which we live. There are different themes, from love topics to identity, globalization, the meaning of life, political engagement, and adulthood. What characterizes this selection are the extremely strong heroes and heroines, as well as the way the authors allow us to approach them without any reservations. There is no distancing, we are emotionally drawn into every single story of the films in this year's selection. In recent years, many debut films have been selected through the Competition Programme – feature film of the Sarajevo Film Festival. Why do filmmakers choose Sarajevo as the starting point for their films? Sarajevo Film Festival has proved to be an excellent festival for the placement of regional films, especially for authors who are making their debut. But for the program itself, we cannot say that is profiled in this way. This year, out of 10 films (8 of which are competing for the Heart of Sarajevo awards), 4 are debut films, including DAY OF THE TIGER, LA PALISIADA, MEDIUM and EXCURSION. But with a little more experienced directors, this is still a program of relatively young authors. Also, you are the selector of the Competition program – short film. What topics have been the focus of interest for their authors? It's another eclectic selection that has actually always been that. The short form remained a place of experimentation, a place of freedom for authors who make short films, and this is reflected in this selection. This year, we're bringing you 10 short films that represent 10 different worlds. This selection represents a nice cross-section of the state of regional short film production. Digital technology has brought a kind of renaissance especially in the production of a short film that continues to exist as a space where authors can fully explore their creative freedom. It is precisely this freedom that is present in all the films of this year's selection. How would you characterize Bosnian-Herzegovinian cinema? We are still extremely unstable, but we have several films in the Competition Programme this year. There is a short film by the young director Alen Šimić, WITNESS (SVJEDOK), and a debut film by the director Una Gunjak, EXCURSION, that will have its premiere at the Locarno Film Festival before Sarajevo. In other programs as well, we will show several BiH films, and of course, there is the entire program that brings 70 titles from or about BiH, which is the BH Film Program organized by the Association of Film Workers of BiH. On the other hand, we have a boom in the production of television series, so the industry is extremely active, but still not enough films are being made in BiH. Here, apart from Una Gunjak, there are almost no debutants, which is a great pity. Next year the 30th Sarajevo Film Festival will be held. Does this jubilee bring you any special emotions and memories? Of course, I've been at the festival from the very beginning, so 30 years of Sarajevo Film Festival will carry both professional and personal memories and emotions. But for sure, I am proud to be part of the Sarajevo Film Festival team that is changing not only the face of our city and state, but also of the region and beyond.
Interview with Elma Tataragić, Selector of Competition programme – feature film/ Competition programme – short film
This year’s selection reflects authors attitudes towards the world
Sukob dvostruke lojalnosti
U svom novom filmu „Lost Country“ srbijanski redatelj Vladimir Perišić vraća se četvrt stoljeća u prošlost, u vrijeme kada su na ulicama Beograda brojni ljudi prosvjedovali protiv predsjednika Slobodana Miloševića, te istražuje kako je to kada osoba koju volite, predstavlja sve ono protiv čega se borite.
Zašto vam je nakon uspjeha debitantskog filma “Ordinary People“, trbalo 13 godina da opet stanete iza kamere? “Ordinary People“ smo počeli snimati prije nego su Radovan Karadžić i Ratko Mladić uhićeni. Karadžić je uhićen tijekom prve nedjelje snimanja, a Mladić tri godine kasnije. Meni je tada bilo bitno snimiti film prije njihovog uhićenja, kao neki moj etički čin kako bih pronašao umjetnički odgovor na goruću stvarnost i na situaciju u kojoj sam se osjećao kao talac. Ta pozicija taoca na izvjestan način, činila me suučesnikom u ratu u kojem nisam želio sudjelovati. Kao što je Roberto Rossellini – za mene jedan od najznačajnijih redatelja - snimao “Rim, otvoreni grad“ 1945., “Paisu“ 1946., a “Njemačku nulte godine“ 1948. Trebalo mi je dugo da ponovo osjetim potrebu za novim filmom. Vjerujem da ne biramo teme, već teme u nama sazrijevaju i u jednom trenutku se nametnu kao očiglednost, kao neophodnost da izvjesnu priču podijelimo s drugima. U ovom slučaju sam također osjećao potrebu da se taj rat konačno završi, da izađemo iz njegove magle, da zločini dobiju sudske presude, da se povijest napiše. Sa sljedećim filmom želio sam ići prema više narativnoj i, romanesknoj formi, manje hrapavoj i neugodnoj za gledatelja, “Ordinary“ je snimljen iz bijesa prema svijetu kakav ne bi trebao biti, a “Lost Country“ sam htio snimiti kao ljubavno pismo. I nadam se da će publika to pismo prihvatiti. Da li je bilo teško ispred kamere rekreirati Beograd od prije četvrt stoljeća? Ne volim povijesne rekonstrukcije, filmove s kostimima i dekorima: ima u njima nečeg antikvarnog. Htio sam snimiti film poput dokumentarnog zapisa iz 1996. Lokacije smo birali tražeći stanove, škole i ulice koje se nisu znatno promijenile u odnosu na to doba. Intervencije su se svodile uglavnom na uklanjanje stvari koje upućuju na 2022. Gotovo cijeli film sniman je u jednom kvartu, Vračaru, jer sam želio biti neka vrsta topografa ili geografa tog dijela grada. I izabrao sam ga snimati s leđa, iz zadnjih dvorišta, koja su ostala identična kao i devedesetih. Vaša majka Nada Popović Perišić tih je godina bila istaknuta članica Socijalističke partije Srbije, a vi sudionik prosvjeda. Koliko je autobiografskih elemenata u filmu? Autobiografska je moja potreba da kroz film promislim osobni sukob koji sam proživio tijekom ne samo tih protesta već i tijekom ostatka devedesetih. To je sukob dvostruke lojalnosti: lojalnosti prema roditelju kojeg volim i mojeg unutrašnjeg etičkog imperativa da se pobunim protiv zločinačkog sustava. Interesiraju me teme koje propitkuju pitanje osobne odgovornosti, ali i teškoća u prihvaćanju stvarnosti kada je ona neugodna ili ugrožava neke naše ustaljene predodžbe o svijetu. Ali sve ostalo je fikcija. Moja majka nije bila glasnogovornica SPS-a, a ja nisam Stefan. Da li ste već pri pisanju scenarija imali na umu glumicu Jasnu Đuričić za ulogu majke Marklene? Da. Ja sam sve svoje filmove radio s Jasnom ili Borisom Isakovićem. Mislim da su čarobni glumci. Ali uvijek postoji opasnost da uđete u neku vrstu automatizma, sigurne zone u kojoj stalno radite s istim ljudima bez da se pitate - jesu li pravi izbor za tu ulogu. Od početka sam znao da će to biti Jasna, a veliki kasting smo napravili samo kako bih sebi potvrdio - da je to jedini i ispravni izbor. Što ste vidjeli u debitantu, tinejdžeru Jovanu Giniću, da upravo njemu date glavnu ulogu? Za mene su susreti s naturščicima vrlo posebno ljudsko iskustvo. Odnos koji kroz snimanje izgradim s njima daleko je više od profesionalnog, to je duboko prijateljski odnos. Što se Jovana tiče, došli smo na kasting u vaterpolo klub Crvena Zvezda, trener je pozvao te mlade ljude kako bi im objasnio o čemu se radi i oni su doplivali do ruba bazena kao neko jato riba. Svidjela mi se ta scena i odlučio sam je fotografirati: dok su svi mladići gledali u trenera i slušali što im priča, Jovan je gledao u mene i u fotoaparat. Na izvjestan način on je vidio mene prije nego sam ja vidio njega. Imam dojam da naturščici, na jedan misteriozan način, pronađu svoje mjesto u filmu. Ne dajem im scenarij na čitanje, ali kao da intuitivno osjete da u sebi nose nešto što će se izraziti, čak iako ne znaju o čemu se u filmu radi. Na početku snimanja ni za mene to nije osviješteno. Uostalom, svaki izbor glumca je neka vrsta oklade. Tek na kraju snimanja shvatim što je on to nosio u sebi sebe, što i ja nosim i što sam tražio da bih mogao snimiti. Zato je odnos s naturščikom tako poseban i u ljudskom smislu intenzivan. Scenarij ste, kao i za debitantski film, napisali s francuskom filmašicom Alice Wincour. Kako izgleda vaša suradnja? Alice poznajem još od studija filma na La Femis, a radimo zajedno od mojeg prvog igranog filma “Ordinary People“. Alice je moja najbliža i najvažnija suradnica, pomogla mi je naučiti i zavoljeti pričanje priča. Zahvaljujući njoj uspijevam naći taj odmak od osobnog, traumatičnog iskustva i pretočiti ga u naraciju. Trauma se opire smislu, a bez smisla nema priče. Zašto ste odlučili da naslov filma u svim zemljama bude engleski “Lost Country“? Razlog je potpuno banalan. Kako živim između Pariza i Beograda, i pišem na francuskom i na srpskom, kada nađem naslov koji mi se dopada na francuskom, njegov prijevod na srpski mi se uopće ne sviđa. I obrnuto. Kako nikad nisam uspio naći naslov koji mi se dopada i na francuskom i na srpskom, odlučio sam da bude samo jedan naslov filma, na engleskom, i da se on ne prevodi na druge jezike. Mislite li da je Srbija doista “lost country“? Za mene je SFRJ izgubljena zemlja, ona koju i dalje doživljavam svojom domovinom i za kojom žalim. To je također i zemlja mog djetinjstva, tog imaginarnog raja. Srbija bi, kao i ostale zemlje nastale raspadom SFRJ, prije bila ne-nađena zemlja. Josip Juričić
BH Telecom je vodeći telekom operator u BiH i ponosni glavni sponzor Sarajevo Film Festivala pod sloganom „Moje Sarajevo. Moja priča.“ Tokom 29. Festivala očekujemo vas da pratite zanimljive sadržaje na Moja TV platformi gdje vam donosimo mnoštvo premium sadržaja uz odabrane filmove, dokumentarce, ali i live atmosferu tokom festivala na kanalu MY TV , kao i na poddomeni www.bhtelecom.ba/sff i na našim društvenim mrežama. Sve naše korisnike očekuju brojna iznenađenja! Moje Sarajevo. Moja priča. BH Telecom BH Telecom is the leading telecom operator in BH and the proud main sponsor of the Sarajevo Film Festival under the slogan "Moje Sarajevo. Moja priča." (engl. "My Sarajevo. My story."). During the 29th Festival, we expect you to follow interesting content on the Moja TV platform, where we bring you a lot of premium content along with selected films, documentaries, live atmosphere during the festival on the MY TV channel, as well as on the subdomain www.bhtelecom.ba /sff and on our social media. Many surprises await all of our users! My Sarajevo. My story. BH Telecom
In "Lost Country", Serbian director Vladimir Perišić goes back a quarter of a century, when many people on the streets of Belgrade protested against president Slobodan Milošević, and explores what it's like when the person you love represents everything you're fighting against.
After the success of your debut film "Ordinary People", why did it take you 13 years to get behind the camera again? We started filming "Ordinary People" before Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić were arrested; Karadžić was arrested during the first week of filming, and Mladić three years later. It was important for me to make that film before their arrest, as a personal ethical act in order to find an artistic response to a burning reality and to a situation in which I felt like a hostage. That hostage position, in a certain way, made me an accomplice in a war in which I did not want to participate. For example, just like Roberto Rossellini - for me one of the most important directors - shot "Rome, the Open City" in 1945, "Paisa" in 1946, and "Germany of the Year Zero" in 1948. It took me a long time to feel the need for a new film again. I believe that we don't choose topics, but topics mature in us and at some time they impose themselves as a kind of obviousness, as a necessity to share a certain story with others. In this case, I also felt the need for the war to finally end, for us to get out of its fog, for the crimes to receive court verdicts, for history to be written. With the second film I wanted to go towards a form that would be more narrative, novelistic, less rough and unpleasant for the viewer and which would communicate with him more easily. "Ordinary" was made from anger towards the world as it should not exist, and "Lost Country" I wanted to make as a love letter. And I hope the audience will accept that letter. How difficult was to recreate Belgrade from a quarter of a century ago? I don't like films that are historical reconstructions with costumes and decorations: there is something antique in them. I wanted to make a film that would be like a documentary recorded in 1996. We chose the locations by looking for apartments, schools and streets that have not changed much compared to that era. The interventions consisted mainly of removing things that refer to 2022. Almost the entire film was shot in one neighbourhood, Vračar, because I wanted to be some kind of topographer or geographer of that part of the city. And I chose to film it from the back yards, which remained identical to the way they were in the nineties. Since your mother Nada Popović Perišić was a prominent member of the Socialist Party of Serbia in those years, and you were a participant in the protests, how many autobiographical elements are there in the film? What is autobiographical is my need to reflect through the film on a personal conflict that I experienced during not only those protests but also during the rest of the nineties, a certain conflict of double loyalty, i.e., loyality to the parent I love and my inner ethical imperative to rebel against a criminal system. I am interested in topics that question the issue of personal responsibility, but also the difficulty in accepting reality when it is unpleasant or threatens some of our established ideas about the world. But everything else is fiction. My mother was not an SPS spokesperson, and I am not Stefan. When writing the script, did you already have actress Jasna Đuričić in mind for the role of mother Marklena? I did. I made all my films with Jasna or Boris Isaković, who I think are magical actors. But there's always a danger that you get into a kind of automatism, a safe zone where you keep working with the same people without asking yourself if they're the right choice for the role. So, I knew from the beginning that it would be Jasna, but we did a big casting in order to confirm myself that it was the only and correct choice. What did you see in a teenager, debutant Jovan Ginić, to give him the main role? For me, meetings with non-professional actors are a very special human experience. The relationship that I build with them through filming is far more than a professional relationship, it is deeply friendly. As for Jovan, we came to the casting at the Crvena Zvezda water polo club, the coach called these young people to explain what it was all about, and they swam to the edge of the pool like a shoal of fish. I liked that scene and decided to photograph it: while all the young men were looking at the coach and listening to what he was saying, Jovan was looking at me and at the camera. In a way, he saw me before I saw him. I have the impression that non-professional actors, in a very mysterious way, find their place in the film. I don't give them a script to read, but it's as if they intuitively feel that they carry something unconscious inside them that will be expressed in that film, even if they don't know what the film is about. At the beginning of the shooting, it was not something I was aware of either. After all, every choice of actor is a kind of bet. Only at the end of the shooting I realize what he carried inside, what I carry inside me and what I was looking for outside of myself to be able to make a film out of it. That's why this relationship with a non-professional actor is so special and intense in a human sense. As for the debut film, you wrote the script with the French filmmaker Alice Wincour. What does your cooperation look like? I've known Alice since I studied film at La Femis, and we've been working together since my first feature film, "Ordinary People". Alice is my closest and most important collaborator, someone who helped me to learn and love telling stories. Thanks to her, I manage to find that distance from a personal, traumatic experience and turn it into a narrative. Trauma resists meaning, and without meaning there is no story. Why did you decide that the title of the film in all countries would be the English one "Lost Country"? The reason is completely banal. As I live between Paris and Belgrade, and I write in French and in Serbian, when I find a title that I like in French, I don't like its Serbian translation at all. And vice versa. As I was never able to find a title that I liked in both French and Serbian, I decided that there would be only one title of the film, in English, and that it would not be translated into other languages. Do you think that Serbia is really a "lost country"? For me, the lost country, the one that I still perceive as my homeland and for which I regret, was the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It is also the land of my childhood, that imaginary paradise. Serbia, like the other countries created by the disintegration of the Yugoslavia, is more of a non-found country. Josip Juričić
A Conflict of Double Loyalty
Posljednji tračci svjetlosti
U carstvu dokumentarnog filmskog stvaralaštva Alise Kovalenko, odvija se simfonija ljepote, hvatajući ne samo privlačnost prirode koja oduzima dah kroz objektiv njenog fotoaparata, već i unutrašnji sjaj koji izvire iz duša petorice tinejdžera.
Toliko je ljepote u vašem filmu, kako u načinu na koji ste kamerom prikazali vanjsku ljepotu prirode, tako i u načinu na koji ste prikazali unutarnju ljepotu koja isijava iz pet tinejdžerskih duša. Ne mogu se oteti dojmu da ste snimili nešto različito od onoga što ste namjeravali snimiti. Da li ste došli u Dombas zbog ove djece ili ste ih tamo upoznali? Sve je počelo u listopadu 2018. sastankom s Valentynom, poznatim ukrajinskim istraživačem koji je sanjao o tome da stvori terapeutski i pustolovni projekt za djecu s prve linije Donbasa – ekspediciju na Himalaje. Ovaj san mi se činio toliko lijepim i važnim da sam mu se poželjela pridružiti. Valentyn je pokrenuo otvoreni poziv i dobio puno pisama i videa od tinejdžera koji govore o svojim životima, snovima i motivima za sudjelovanje. Zajedno s Valentynom putovali smo u Donbas gdje smo susreli mnogu djecu. Nakon odabira pet tinejdžera koji su bili najmotiviraniji, najstrastveniji i najbistriji, počela sam dublje zaranjati u njihove živote. Što sam više vremena provodila s njima, što mi se perspektiva gledanja na ovu priču više mijenjala, to su svakodnevni život tinejdžera u Donbasu, njihovi snovi i borba za snove postajali važniji. Htjela sam prikazati svijet kroz njihove oči, dati ovom filmu tinejdžerski duh, nježnost, emotivnost. A osim toga, u tim sam mladim ljudima vidjela novu generaciju koja bi mogla promijeniti stari svijet u Donbasu. Počela sam razmišljati o tome da u filmu dam puno manje mjesta himalajskoj ekspediciji koja je postala više metaforična, simbolična. Ne radi se samo o osvajanju fizičkih planinskih vrhova, radi se o osvajanju vlastitih unutarnjih planina, o preprekama koje morate svladati da biste ostvarili svoje snove. Ovaj film je trebao biti o ostvarenim dječjim snovima, ali nažalost postao je i film o raspršenim snovima. Zbog sveobuhvatne ruske invazije, svijet koji sam snimala više ne postoji, uništen je i okupiran, a ovaj je film njegov posljednji dokument. Riječ je o posljednjim tračcima svjetlosti ovog svijeta prije nego što ga proguta tama. U vremenu u kojem se odvija radnja vašeg filma i pomisao na putovanje u Nepal na himalajsku ekspediciju zvuči kao znanstvena fantastika. Da li ste, prateći pripreme za putovanje, nimalo naivne okolnosti u kojima su se one odvijale i samu ekspediciju, svim tinejdžerima svijeta željeli poslati poruku da i u najgorim vremenima potraže svjetlo u sebi i da ne odustaju od snova? Stvarno sam puno razmišljala o tome dok sam snimala ovaj film. I sama sam odrastala u sivom metalurškom gradu Zaporožje, koji se često naziva ukrajinskim Detroitom, nekoliko sati vožnje od mjesta gdje su živjeli moji likovi. Moji su roditelji teško radili u tvornici metala. Preživjeli smo pakao ekonomskog kolapsa 1990-ih: nezaposlenost, nedostatak hrane, siromaštvo. Kad sam bila tinejdžerka, kao i mnogi moji prijatelji, sanjala sam da odem odande. Bili smo siromašni, ali smo bili sanjari, kao i moji likovi, tinejdžeri iz Donbasa. I to je način da se zaštiti od tuge i sivila. Dobro razumijem koliko se tinejdžera može suočiti s istim izazovima, tako da je za mene ovo vrlo univerzalna priča koja se može obratiti mnogim tinejdžerima diljem svijeta. Radi se o tome da bez obzira u kojoj rupi na svijetu odrastao, u kojim okolnostima, ako imaš svjetlo u sebi, ako imaš san, možeš osvijetliti svaku tamu oko sebe. "Kao djeca, mi smo vječni", jednom je napisao Tonino Guerra, scenarist Federica Fellinija. Uvijek sam o tome razmišljala dok sam snimala ovaj film. Lijepo je to doba kada svijet i život nemaju kraja i sve je moguće i svoj osobni raj možete pronaći čak i u jadnom paklu. Između vas i vaših likova razvila se vrlo prisna veza. Neki momenti u filmu su toliko nabijeni emocijama da gledatelju stane knedla u grlu. Trenutak kada Liza plače ganuta ljepotom prirode je nevjerovatan. Kako ste se vi osjećali snimajući tu prekrasnu, bajkovitu scenu? Zapravo, ova scena ima dugu pozadinu u vremenu koje sam provela s Lizom. Ono što mi je uvijek važno u dokumentarnom filmu je vrijeme, vrijeme provedeno s likovima, vrijeme provedeno u njihovoj stvarnosti. Često sam se šalila da sam i sama pomalo postala tinejdžerka nakon vremena provedenog sa mojim likovima. Željela sam biti dio njihovog svijeta. Puno toga smo prošli zajedno, vidjela sam njihove prve ljubavi, patnje, frustracije, sukobe s roditeljima i prijateljima, zajedno smo išli na zabave, utrkivali se motorima, išli u razne avanture. Mislim da nam takva bliskost omogućuje da dublje otvorimo likove, da vidimo svijet njihovim očima, da stvara snažnu unutarnju povezanost i povjerenje. Suosjećala sam sa svime što je Liza osjećala u tom osjetljivom trenutku na Himalaji. Zapravo, u tom sam trenutku poželjela plakati s njom. Mislim da smo svi osjećali nešto slično. Za mene je ova scena o sposobnosti da se vidi, percipira i osjeti ljepota. I ta je sposobnost također vrlo povezana s unutarnjim svijetom osobe i njegovom ljepotom. Svi ti tinejdžeri imali su tu ljepotu u sebi. Muzika u vašem filmu je predivna i vrlo važna. Stječe se dojam da je na njoj ozbiljno rađeno i da joj je posvećena posebna pažnja. Recite nam nešto više o odabiru muzike. Od samog početka shvatili smo da film mora imati muziku jer je ona bila vrlo važan dio života tinejdžera. Svijet tinejdžera je pun muzike, ona je posvuda. Glazba tinejdžerima često pomaže izraziti, živjeti i osloboditi emocije. Lera je uvijek išla sama u šetnju sa slušalicama u ušima. Ali bilo je teško koristiti pravu glazbu iz njihovog svijeta, za svakoga je bila drugačija i pokazala se neorganskom, kakofoničnom. Htjeli smo ih ujediniti zajedničkim unutarnjim glasom tinejdžera, stvoriti jedinstveni glazbeni prostor i emocije. Ove pjesme sadrže tonove njihovih snova, nadanja, tuge, melankolije, tjeskobe, radosti, svega onoga što je ponekad teško opisati riječima. Proces stvaranja bio je dug i složen. Radili smo s mladim talentiranim poljskim skladateljem Wojtekom Fryczom koji je imao vrlo senzualnu percepciju i osjećaj za film. Većina stihova i fraza u pjesmama zapravo se temelji na stihovima Ruslana, jednog od likova iz filma, koji repa. Obično sam glazbeno vrlo minimalistična u svojim filmovima i vrlo sam oprezna s glazbom u dokumentarcima. Ona se često koristi kao podštapalo. Evo tužnog trenutka - dodajmo violinu. U ovom smo filmu morali stvoriti cijeli unutarnji univerzuma emocija za likove kroz glazbu i bilo je vrlo zanimljivo. Vaš će film otvoriti ovogodišnji Takmičarski program - dokumentarni film Sarajevo Film Festivala. Bosanskohercegovačka publika, nažalost, ima bogato ratno iskustvo. Kakav prijem i kakvo razumijevanje vašeg filma očekujete u Sarajevu? Moji osjećaji o Sarajevu, o Bosni, značajno su povezani s mojom prvom posjetom ovdje u listopadu 2019. Za mene je to bilo zagovaračko putovanje kao dio grupe žena koje su preživjele nasilje i torturu u zatočeništvu uzrokovane ratom u Donbasu koji je započeo 2014. Susrele smo se s bosanskim ženama koje su također sve ovo iskusile godinama ranije. Puno smo razgovarale o dodirnim tačkama našeg zajedničkog bolnog iskustva. Plakale smo slušajući jedna drugu i osjetile snažnu povezanost. Bio je to nevjerojatno dirljiv susret. Tada sam napisala "Bosna... s tako nevjerojatnim planinskim krajolicima i nepodnošljivo tužnim pričama iza njih, s ratom koji je završio, ali koji nikome ne da zaboraviti..." Sada je, nažalost, to uobičajeno traumatično iskustvo postalo još gore i ima više zajedničkih promišljanja. Tako da osjećam da će naš film imati odjeka kod sarajevske publike ne samo zbog sličnog bolnog iskustva, već i zbog važnosti zajedničke borbe protiv zla, za njegovo kažnjavanje i za pravdu. I pored tužne pozadine, film ipak nosi svjetlo i nadu, a vjerujem da će i bosanskohercegovačka publika duboko suosjećati s tim. Marinela Domančić m filmu tinejdžerski duh, nježnost, emotivnost. A osim toga, u tim sam mladim ljudima vidjela novu generaciju koja bi mogla promijeniti stari svijet u Donbasu. Počela sam razmišljati o tome da u filmu dam puno manje mjesta himalajskoj ekspediciji koja je postala više metaforična, simbolična. Ne radi se samo o osvajanju fizičkih planinskih vrhova, radi se o osvajanju vlastitih unutarnjih planina, o preprekama koje morate svladati da biste ostvarili svoje snove. Ovaj film je trebao biti o ostvarenim dječjim snovima, ali nažalost postao je i film o raspršenim snovima. Zbog sveobuhvatne ruske invazije, svijet koji sam snimala više ne postoji, uništen je i okupiran, a ovaj je film njegov posljednji dokument. Riječ je o posljednjim tračcima svjetlosti ovog svijeta prije nego što ga proguta tama. U vremenu u kojem se odvija radnja vašeg filma i pomisao na putovanje u Nepal na himalajsku ekspediciju zvuči kao znanstvena fantastika. Da li ste, prateći pripreme za putovanje, nimalo naivne okolnosti u kojima su se one odvijale i samu ekspediciju, svim tinejdžerima svijeta željeli poslati poruku da i u najgorim vremenima potraže svjetlo u sebi i da ne odustaju od snova? Stvarno sam puno razmišljala o tome dok sam snimala ovaj film. I sama sam odrastala u sivom metalurškom gradu Zaporožje, koji se često naziva ukrajinskim Detroitom, nekoliko sati vožnje od mjesta gdje su živjeli moji likovi. Moji su roditelji teško radili u tvornici metala. Preživjeli smo pakao ekonomskog kolapsa 1990-ih: nezaposlenost, nedostatak hrane, siromaštvo. Kad sam bila tinejdžerka, kao i mnogi moji prijatelji, sanjala sam da odem odande. Bili smo siromašni, ali smo bili sanjari, kao i moji likovi, tinejdžeri iz Donbasa. I to je način da se zaštiti od tuge i sivila. Dobro razumijem koliko se tinejdžera može suočiti s istim izazovima, tako da je za mene ovo vrlo univerzalna priča koja se može obratiti mnogim tinejdžerima diljem svijeta. Radi se o tome da bez obzira u kojoj rupi na svijetu odrastao, u kojim okolnostima, ako imaš svjetlo u sebi, ako imaš san, možeš osvijetliti svaku tamu oko sebe. "Kao djeca, mi smo vječni", jednom je napisao Tonino Guerra, scenarist Federica Fellinija. Uvijek sam o tome razmišljala dok sam snimala ovaj film. Lijepo je to doba kada svijet i život nemaju kraja i sve je moguće i svoj osobni raj možete pronaći čak i u jadnom paklu. Između vas i vaših likova razvila se vrlo prisna veza. Neki momenti u filmu su toliko nabijeni emocijama da gledatelju stane knedla u grlu. Trenutak kada Liza plače ganuta ljepotom prirode je nevjerovatan. Kako ste se vi osjećali snimajući tu prekrasnu, bajkovitu scenu? Zapravo, ova scena ima dugu pozadinu u vremenu koje sam provela s Lizom. Ono što mi je uvijek važno u dokumentarnom filmu je vrijeme, vrijeme provedeno s likovima, vrijeme provedeno u njihovoj stvarnosti. Često sam se šalila da sam i sama pomalo postala tinejdžerka nakon vremena provedenog sa mojim likovima. Željela sam biti dio njihovog svijeta. Puno toga smo prošli zajedno, vidjela sam njihove prve ljubavi, patnje, frustracije, sukobe s roditeljima i prijateljima, zajedno smo išli na zabave, utrkivali se motorima, išli u razne avanture. Mislim da nam takva bliskost omogućuje da dublje otvorimo likove, da vidimo svijet njihovim očima, da stvara snažnu unutarnju povezanost i povjerenje. Suosjećala sam sa svime što je Liza osjećala u tom osjetljivom trenutku na Himalaji. Zapravo, u tom sam trenutku poželjela plakati s njom. Mislim da smo svi osjećali nešto slično. Za mene je ova scena o sposobnosti da se vidi, percipira i osjeti ljepota. I ta je sposobnost također vrlo povezana s unutarnjim svijetom osobe i njegovom ljepotom. Svi ti tinejdžeri imali su tu ljepotu u sebi. Muzika u vašem filmu je predivna i vrlo važna. Stječe se dojam da je na njoj ozbiljno rađeno i da joj je posvećena posebna pažnja. Recite nam nešto više o odabiru muzike. Od samog početka shvatili smo da film mora imati muziku jer je ona bila vrlo važan dio života tinejdžera. Svijet tinejdžera je pun muzike, ona je posvuda. Glazba tinejdžerima često pomaže izraziti, živjeti i osloboditi emocije. Lera je uvijek išla sama u šetnju sa slušalicama u ušima. Ali bilo je teško koristiti pravu glazbu iz njihovog svijeta, za svakoga je bila drugačija i pokazala se neorganskom, kakofoničnom. Htjeli smo ih ujediniti zajedničkim unutarnjim glasom tinejdžera, stvoriti jedinstveni glazbeni prostor i emocije. Ove pjesme sadrže tonove njihovih snova, nadanja, tuge, melankolije, tjeskobe, radosti, svega onoga što je ponekad teško opisati riječima. Proces stvaranja bio je dug i složen. Radili smo s mladim talentiranim poljskim skladateljem Wojtekom Fryczom koji je imao vrlo senzualnu percepciju i osjećaj za film. Većina stihova i fraza u pjesmama zapravo se temelji na stihovima Ruslana, jednog od likova iz filma, koji repa. Obično sam glazbeno vrlo minimalistična u svojim filmovima i vrlo sam oprezna s glazbom u dokumentarcima. Ona se često koristi kao podštapalo. Evo tužnog trenutka - dodajmo violinu. U ovom smo filmu morali stvoriti cijeli unutarnji univerzuma emocija za likove kroz glazbu, i bilo je vrlo zanimljivo. Vaš će film otvoriti ovogodišnji Takmičarski program - dokumentarni film Sarajevo Film Festivala. Bosanskohercegovačka publika, nažalost, ima bogato ratno iskustvo. Kakav prijem i kakvo razumijevanje vašeg filma očekujete u Sarajevu? Moji osjećaji o Sarajevu, o Bosni, značajno su povezani s mojom prvom posjetom ovdje u listopadu 2019. Za mene je to bilo zagovaračko putovanje kao dio grupe žena koje su preživjele nasilje i torturu u zatočeništvu uzrokovane ratom u Donbasu koji je započeo 2014. Susrele smo se s bosanskim ženama koje su također sve ovo iskusile godinama ranije. Puno smo razgovarale o dodirnim tačkama našeg zajedničkog bolnog iskustva. Plakale smo slušajući jedna drugu i osjetile snažnu povezanost. Bio je to nevjerojatno dirljiv susret. Tada sam napisala "Bosna... s tako nevjerojatnim planinskim krajolicima i nepodnošljivo tužnim pričama iza njih, s ratom koji je završio, ali koji nikome ne da zaboraviti..." Sada je, nažalost, to uobičajeno traumatično iskustvo postalo još gore i ima više zajedničkih promišljanja. Tako da osjećam da će naš film imati odjeka kod sarajevske publike ne samo zbog sličnog bolnog iskustva, već i zbog važnosti zajedničke borbe protiv zla, za njegovo kažnjavanje i za pravdu. I pored tužne pozadine, film ipak nosi svjetlo i nadu, a vjerujem da će i bosanskohercegovačka publika duboko suosjećati s tim. Marinela Domančić Toliko je ljepote u vašem filmu, kako u načinu na koji ste kamerom prikazali vanjsku ljepotu prirode, tako i u načinu na koji ste prikazali unutarnju ljepotu koja isijava iz pet tinejdžerskih duša. Ne mogu se oteti dojmu da ste snimili nešto različito od onoga što ste namjeravali snimiti. Da li ste došli u Dombas zbog ove djece ili ste ih tamo upoznali? Sve je počelo u listopadu 2018. sastankom s Valentynom, poznatim ukrajinskim istraživačem koji je sanjao o tome da stvori terapeutski i pustolovni projekt za djecu s prve linije Donbasa – ekspediciju na Himalaje. Ovaj san mi se činio toliko lijepim i važnim da sam mu se poželjela pridružiti. Valentyn je pokrenuo otvoreni poziv i dobio puno pisama i videa od tinejdžera koji govore o svojim životima, snovima i motivima za sudjelovanje. Zajedno s Valentynom putovali smo u Donbas gdje smo susreli mnogu djecu. Nakon odabira pet tinejdžera koji su bili najmotiviraniji, najstrastveniji i najbistriji, počela sam dublje zaranjati u njihove živote. Što sam više vremena provodila s njima, što mi se perspektiva gledanja na ovu priču više mijenjala, to su svakodnevni život tinejdžera u Donbasu, njihovi snovi i borba za snove postajali važniji. Htjela sam prikazati svijet kroz njihove oči, dati ovom filmu tinejdžerski duh, nježnost, emotivnost. A osim toga, u tim sam mladim ljudima vidjela novu generaciju koja bi mogla promijeniti stari svijet u Donbasu. Počela sam razmišljati o tome da u filmu dam puno manje mjesta himalajskoj ekspediciji koja je postala više metaforična, simbolična. Ne radi se samo o osvajanju fizičkih planinskih vrhova, radi se o osvajanju vlastitih unutarnjih planina, o preprekama koje morate svladati da biste ostvarili svoje snove. Ovaj film je trebao biti o ostvarenim dječjim snovima, ali nažalost postao je i film o raspršenim snovima. Zbog sveobuhvatne ruske invazije, svijet koji sam snimala više ne postoji, uništen je i okupiran, a ovaj je film njegov posljednji dokument. Riječ je o posljednjim tračcima svjetlosti ovog svijeta prije nego što ga proguta tama. U vremenu u kojem se odvija radnja vašeg filma i pomisao na putovanje u Nepal na himalajsku ekspediciju zvuči kao znanstvena fantastika. Da li ste, prateći pripreme za putovanje, nimalo naivne okolnosti u kojima su se one odvijale i samu ekspediciju, svim tinejdžerima svijeta željeli poslati poruku da i u najgorim vremenima potraže svjetlo u sebi i da ne odustaju od snova? Stvarno sam puno razmišljala o tome dok sam snimala ovaj film. I sama sam odrastala u sivom metalurškom gradu Zaporožje, koji se često naziva ukrajinskim Detroitom, nekoliko sati vožnje od mjesta gdje su živjeli moji likovi. Moji su roditelji teško radili u tvornici metala. Preživjeli smo pakao ekonomskog kolapsa 1990-ih: nezaposlenost, nedostatak hrane, siromaštvo. Kad sam bila tinejdžerka, kao i mnogi moji prijatelji, sanjala sam da odem odande. Bili smo siromašni, ali smo bili sanjari, kao i moji likovi, tinejdžeri iz Donbasa. I to je način da se zaštiti od tuge i sivila. Dobro razumijem koliko se tinejdžera može suočiti s istim izazovima, tako da je za mene ovo vrlo univerzalna priča koja se može obratiti mnogim tinejdžerima diljem svijeta. Radi se o tome da bez obzira u kojoj rupi na svijetu odrastao, u kojim okolnostima, ako imaš svjetlo u sebi, ako imaš san, možeš osvijetliti svaku tamu oko sebe. "Kao djeca, mi smo vječni", jednom je napisao Tonino Guerra, scenarist Federica Fellinija. Uvijek sam o tome razmišljala dok sam snimala ovaj film. Lijepo je to doba kada svijet i život nemaju kraja i sve je moguće i svoj osobni raj možete pronaći čak i u jadnom paklu. Između vas i vaših likova razvila se vrlo prisna veza. Neki momenti u filmu su toliko nabijeni emocijama da gledatelju stane knedla u grlu. Trenutak kada Liza plače ganuta ljepotom prirode je nevjerovatan. Kako ste se vi osjećali snimajući tu prekrasnu, bajkovitu scenu? Zapravo, ova scena ima dugu pozadinu u vremenu koje sam provela s Lizom. Ono što mi je uvijek važno u dokumentarnom filmu je vrijeme, vrijeme provedeno s likovima, vrijeme provedeno u njihovoj stvarnosti. Često sam se šalila da sam i sama pomalo postala tinejdžerka nakon vremena provedenog sa mojim likovima. Željela sam biti dio njihovog svijeta. Puno toga smo prošli zajedno, vidjela sam njihove prve ljubavi, patnje, frustracije, sukobe s roditeljima i prijateljima, zajedno smo išli na zabave, utrkivali se motorima, išli u razne avanture. Mislim da nam takva bliskost omogućuje da dublje otvorimo likove, da vidimo svijet njihovim očima, da stvara snažnu unutarnju povezanost i povjerenje. Suosjećala sam sa svime što je Liza osjećala u tom osjetljivom trenutku na Himalaji. Zapravo, u tom sam trenutku poželjela plakati s njom. Mislim da smo svi osjećali nešto slično. Za mene je ova scena o sposobnosti da se vidi, percipira i osjeti ljepota. I ta je sposobnost također vrlo povezana s unutarnjim svijetom osobe i njegovom ljepotom. Svi ti tinejdžeri imali su tu ljepotu u sebi. Muzika u vašem filmu je predivna i vrlo važna. Stječe se dojam da je na njoj ozbiljno rađeno i da joj je posvećena posebna pažnja. Recite nam nešto više o odabiru muzike. Od samog početka shvatili smo da film mora imati muziku jer je ona bila vrlo važan dio života tinejdžera. Svijet tinejdžera je pun muzike, ona je posvuda. Glazba tinejdžerima često pomaže izraziti, živjeti i osloboditi emocije. Lera je uvijek išla sama u šetnju sa slušalicama u ušima. Ali bilo je teško koristiti pravu glazbu iz njihovog svijeta, za svakoga je bila drugačija i pokazala se neorganskom, kakofoničnom. Htjeli smo ih ujediniti zajedničkim unutarnjim glasom tinejdžera, stvoriti jedinstveni glazbeni prostor i emocije. Ove pjesme sadrže tonove njihovih snova, nadanja, tuge, melankolije, tjeskobe, radosti, svega onoga što je ponekad teško opisati riječima. Proces stvaranja bio je dug i složen. Radili smo s mladim talentiranim poljskim skladateljem Wojtekom Fryczom koji je imao vrlo senzualnu percepciju i osjećaj za film. Većina stihova i fraza u pjesmama zapravo se temelji na stihovima Ruslana, jednog od likova iz filma, koji repa. Obično sam glazbeno vrlo minimalistična u svojim filmovima i vrlo sam oprezna s glazbom u dokumentarcima. Ona se često koristi kao podštapalo. Evo tužnog trenutka - dodajmo violinu. U ovom smo filmu morali stvoriti cijeli unutarnji univerzuma emocija za likove kroz glazbu, i bilo je vrlo zanimljivo. Vaš će film otvoriti ovogodišnji Takmičarski program - dokumentarni film Sarajevo Film Festivala. Bosanskohercegovačka publika, nažalost, ima bogato ratno iskustvo. Kakav prijem i kakvo razumijevanje vašeg filma očekujete u Sarajevu? Moji osjećaji o Sarajevu, o Bosni, značajno su povezani s mojom prvom posjetom ovdje u listopadu 2019. Za mene je to bilo zagovaračko putovanje kao dio grupe žena koje su preživjele nasilje i torturu u zatočeništvu uzrokovane ratom u Donbasu koji je započeo 2014. Susrele smo se s bosanskim ženama koje su također sve ovo iskusile godinama ranije. Puno smo razgovarale o dodirnim tačkama našeg zajedničkog bolnog iskustva. Plakale smo slušajući jedna drugu i osjetile snažnu povezanost. Bio je to nevjerojatno dirljiv susret. Tada sam napisala "Bosna... s tako nevjerojatnim planinskim krajolicima i nepodnošljivo tužnim pričama iza njih, s ratom koji je završio, ali koji nikome ne da zaboraviti..." Sada je, nažalost, to uobičajeno traumatično iskustvo postalo još gore i ima više zajedničkih promišljanja. Tako da osjećam da će naš film imati odjeka kod sarajevske publike ne samo zbog sličnog bolnog iskustva, već i zbog važnosti zajedničke borbe protiv zla, za njegovo kažnjavanje i za pravdu. I pored tužne pozadine, film ipak nosi svjetlo i nadu, a vjerujem da će i bosanskohercegovačka publika duboko suosjećati s tim. Marinela Domančić
There is so much beauty in your film, both in the way you used camera to show the outside beauty of the nature and in the way you showed the inner beauty that radiates from souls of five teenagers. Somehow, I can't shake the impression that you filmed something different from what you intended to record. Did you come to Dombas because of these five kids, or did you meet them there? It all started in October 2018 with a meeting with Valentyn, a well-known Ukrainian explorer who had a dream to create a therapeutic and adventure project for children from the frontline zones of Donbas – an expedition to the Himalayas. This dream seemed so beautiful and important to me that I wanted to join in. Valentyn launched an open call and received a lot of letters and videos from teenagers telling about their lives, dreams and motivations for participation. Together with Valentyn, we travelled to Donbas and met with many different children. And after the selection of the five teenagers who were the most motivated, passionate and bright among the others, I began to dive deeper into their lives. And the more time I spent with them, the more the angle of this story changed for me, the more important the everyday life of teenagers in Donbas, their dreams, their struggle for them became. I wanted to show the world through their eyes, to give this film a teenage spirit, tenderness, emotionality. And besides, in these young people I saw a new generation that could change this old world in Donbas. I began to think about the much smaller place of the Himalayan expedition in this story; it became something more metaphorical, symbolic. It's not just about conquering physical mountaintops; it's about conquering your own inner mountains; about the obstacles you have to overcome to achieve your dreams. This film was supposed to be about realised kids dreams, but unfortunately it became also about broken dreams. Because of the full-scale Russian invasion, the world I was filming no longer exists, it has been destroyed and occupied, and this film is its last document. It's about the last light glimpses of this world before it is swallowed up by darkness. In the time your film is set in, the thought of traveling to Nepal on a Himalayan expedition sounds like science fiction. Following the preparations for the trip, the not at all naive circumstances in which they took place and the expedition itself, did you want to send a message to all the teenagers of the world to look for the light within themselves and not to give up on their dreams even in the worst times? I really thought about it a lot when I was making this film. I myself grew up in the grey metallurgical city of Zaporizhzhia, often called the Ukrainian Detroit, a few hours' drive from where my characters lived. My parents worked hard at a metal factory. We survived the hell of the economic collapse of the 1990s: unemployment, no food, poverty. When I was a teenager, I dreamed to get out of there, like many of my friends. We were poor, but we were dreamers, just like my characters, teenagers from Donbas. And that's how you can protect yourself from the sadness and the greyness. I understand well how many teenagers can face the same challenges, so for me, it's a very universal story and I think it can speak to many teenagers around the world. It's about that no matter in which hole in the world you grew up, in which circumstances, if you have light inside you, if you have a dream, you can light up any darkness around you. "As children, we are eternal", once wrote Tonino Guerra, Federico Fellini’s scriptwriter. I was always thinking about this while making this film. This is a beautiful age when the world and life have no ends, and everything is possible, and you can find your personal paradise even in a poor hell. A very close bond has developed between you and your characters. Some moments in the film are so charged with emotions that the viewer gets a lump in his throat. The moment when Liza cries moved by the beauty of nature is incredible. How did you feel shooting that beautiful, fairy-tale scene? In fact, this scene has a long background and the time I spent with Liza. What is always important for me in documentary filmmaking is time, time spent with the characters, time spent in their reality. I often joked that I had actually become a bit of a teenager myself after such a long period of time with my characters. I wanted to be a part of their world. We went through a lot together, I saw their first loves, suffering, frustrations, conflicts with parents and friends, we went to parties together, raced motorbikes, went on various adventures. I think this closeness allows us to open the characters more deeply, to see the world through their eyes. It creates a strong inner connection and trust. So, I can say that I empathised with everything Liza felt in that sensitive moment in the Himalayas. In fact, I wanted to cry with her at that moment. I think we all felt something similar. For me, this scene is about the ability to see, perceive, and feel beauty. And this ability is also very much connected with the inner world of a person, the beauty of this world. All these teenagers had this beauty inside them. The music in your film is beautiful and very important. It leaves the impression that it was seriously worked on and that special attention was paid to it. Tell us more about the choice of music. From the very beginning, we realised that the film had to be musical, because music was a very important part of teenagers lives, the world of teenagers is very musical; music was everywhere. Music for teenagers often helps to express emotions, to live their emotions, to release them. Lera always went for a walk alone with headphones in her ears. But it was difficult to use real music from their world, it was different for each of them, and it turned out to be quite inorganic, cacophonic. We wanted to unite everyone with this common inner voice of teenagers, to create a unified musical space and emotions. These songs contain the tones of their dreams, hopes, sadness, melancholy, anxiety, joy, all the things that are sometimes so difficult to describe in words... It was a long and complex creative work. We worked with a young talented Polish composer Wojtek Frycz, who had a very sensual perception and feel for the film. And most of the lyrics and phrases in the songs are actually based on the lyrics of Ruslan, one of the film's characters, who raps. I'm usually very musically minimalistic in my films and I'm very cautious about music in documentaries. It is often used as a crutch. Here's a sad moment - let's add a violin. But in this film, we had to create a kind of whole inner universe of emotions for the characters through music, and it was very interesting. Your film will open this year's competition program - documentary film of the Sarajevo Film Festival. The Bosnian-Herzegovinian audience, unfortunately, has rich wartime experience. What kind of reception and understanding of your film do you expect here in Sarajevo? My feelings about Sarajevo, Bosnia, are very much connected to my first visit here in October 2019. It was an advocacy trip for me as part of a group of women who survived violence and torture in captivity caused by the war in Donbas that began in 2014. We met with Bosnian women who had also experienced all this years ago. We talked a lot about the points of intersection of our common painful experience. We cried listening to each other's stories and felt such a strong connection. It was an incredibly moving meeting. Back then, I wrote "Bosnia... with such incredible mountain landscapes and unbearably sad stories behind them, with a war that is over, but which does not let anyone forget..." Now, unfortunately, this common traumatic experience has become even more and there are more common reflections. So, I feel that our film will resonate with the audience in Sarajevo not only because of the similar painful experience, but also because of the importance of a common fight against evil, for its punishment and for justice. And despite the sad background, the film still brings light and hope, and I believe that the Bosnian-Herzegovinian audience will also deeply empathise with this. Marinela Domančić There is so much beauty in your film, both in the way you used camera to show the outside beauty of the nature and in the way you showed the inner beauty that radiates from souls of five teenagers. Somehow, I can't shake the impression that you filmed something different from what you intended to record. Did you come to Dombas because of these five kids, or did you meet them there? It all started in October 2018 with a meeting with Valentyn, a well-known Ukrainian explorer who had a dream to create a therapeutic and adventure project for children from the frontline zones of Donbas – an expedition to the Himalayas. This dream seemed so beautiful and important to me that I wanted to join in. Valentyn launched an open call and received a lot of letters and videos from teenagers telling about their lives, dreams and motivations for participation. Together with Valentyn, we travelled to Donbas and met with many different children. And after the selection of the five teenagers who were the most motivated, passionate and bright among the others, I began to dive deeper into their lives. And the more time I spent with them, the more the angle of this story changed for me, the more important the everyday life of teenagers in Donbas, their dreams, their struggle for them became. I wanted to show the world through their eyes, to give this film a teenage spirit, tenderness, emotionality. And besides, in these young people I saw a new generation that could change this old world in Donbas. I began to think about the much smaller place of the Himalayan expedition in this story; it became something more metaphorical, symbolic. It's not just about conquering physical mountaintops; it's about conquering your own inner mountains; about the obstacles you have to overcome to achieve your dreams. This film was supposed to be about realised kids’ dreams, but unfortunately it became also about broken dreams. Because of the full-scale Russian invasion, the world I was filming no longer exists, it has been destroyed and occupied, and this film is its last document. It's about the last light glimpses of this world before it is swallowed up by darkness. In the time your film is set in, the thought of traveling to Nepal on a Himalayan expedition sounds like science fiction. Following the preparations for the trip, the not at all naive circumstances in which they took place and the expedition itself, did you want to send a message to all the teenagers of the world to look for the light within themselves and not to give up on their dreams even in the worst times? I really thought about it a lot when I was making this film. I myself grew up in the grey metallurgical city of Zaporizhzhia, often called the Ukrainian Detroit, a few hours' drive from where my characters lived. My parents worked hard at a metal factory. We survived the hell of the economic collapse of the 1990s: unemployment, no food, poverty. When I was a teenager, I dreamed to get out of there, like many of my friends. We were poor, but we were dreamers, just like my characters, teenagers from Donbas. And that's how you can protect yourself from the sadness and the greyness. I understand well how many teenagers can face the same challenges, so for me, it's a very universal story and I think it can speak to many teenagers around the world. It's about that no matter in which hole in the world you grew up, in which circumstances, if you have light inside you, if you have a dream, you can light up any darkness around you. "As children, we are eternal", once wrote Tonino Guerra, Federico Fellini’s scriptwriter. I was always thinking about this while making this film. This is a beautiful age when the world and life have no ends, and everything is possible, and you can find your personal paradise even in a poor hell. A very close bond has developed between you and your characters. Some moments in the film are so charged with emotions that the viewer gets a lump in his throat. The moment when Liza cries moved by the beauty of nature is incredible. How did you feel shooting that beautiful, fairy-tale scene? In fact, this scene has a long background and the time I spent with Liza. What is always important for me in documentary filmmaking is time, time spent with the characters, time spent in their reality. I often joked that I had actually become a bit of a teenager myself after such a long period of time with my characters. I wanted to be a part of their world. We went through a lot together, I saw their first loves, suffering, frustrations, conflicts with parents and friends, we went to parties together, raced motorbikes, went on various adventures. I think this closeness allows us to open the characters more deeply, to see the world through their eyes. It creates a strong inner connection and trust. So, I can say that I empathised with everything Liza felt in that sensitive moment in the Himalayas. In fact, I wanted to cry with her at that moment. I think we all felt something similar. For me, this scene is about the ability to see, perceive, and feel beauty. And this ability is also very much connected with the inner world of a person, the beauty of this world. All these teenagers had this beauty inside them. The music in your film is beautiful and very important. It leaves the impression that it was seriously worked on and that special attention was paid to it. Tell us more about the choice of music. From the very beginning, we realised that the film had to be musical, because music was a very important part of teenagers' lives, the world of teenagers is very musical; music was everywhere. Music for teenagers often helps to express emotions, to live their emotions, to release them. Lera always went for a walk alone with headphones in her ears. But it was difficult to use real music from their world, it was different for each of them, and it turned out to be quite inorganic, cacophonic. We wanted to unite everyone with this common inner voice of teenagers, to create a unified musical space and emotions. These songs contain the tones of their dreams, hopes, sadness, melancholy, anxiety, joy, all the things that are sometimes so difficult to describe in words... It was a long and complex creative work. We worked with a young talented Polish composer Wojtek Frycz, who had a very sensual perception and feel for the film. And most of the lyrics and phrases in the songs are actually based on the lyrics of Ruslan, one of the film's characters, who raps. I'm usually very musically minimalistic in my films and I'm very cautious about music in documentaries. It is often used as a crutch. Here's a sad moment - let's add a violin. But in this film, we had to create a kind of whole inner universe of emotions for the characters through music, and it was very interesting. Your film will open this year's competition program - documentary film of the Sarajevo Film Festival. The Bosnian Herzegovinian audience, unfortunately, has rich wartime experience. What kind of reception and understanding of your film do you expect here in Sarajevo? My feelings about Sarajevo, Bosnia, are very much connected to my first visit here in October 2019. It was an advocacy trip for me as part of a group of women who survived violence and torture in captivity caused by the war in Donbas that began in 2014. We met with Bosnian women who had also experienced all this years ago. We talked a lot about the points of intersection of our common painful experience. We cried listening to each other's stories and felt such a strong connection. It was an incredibly moving meeting. Back then, I wrote "Bosnia... with such incredible mountain landscapes and unbearably sad stories behind them, with a war that is over, but which does not let anyone forget..." Now, unfortunately, this common traumatic experience has become even more and there are more common reflections. So, I feel that our film will resonate with the audience in Sarajevo not only because of the similar painful experience, but also because of the importance of a common fight against evil, for its punishment and for justice. And despite the sad background, the film still brings light and hope, and I believe that the Bosnian Herzegovinian audience will also deeply empathise with this. Marinela Domančić There is so much beauty in your film, both in the way you used camera to show the outside beauty of the nature and in the way you showed the inner beauty that radiates from souls of five teenagers. Somehow, I can't shake the impression that you filmed something different from what you intended to record. Did you come to Dombas because of these five kids, or did you meet them there? It all started in October 2018 with a meeting with Valentyn, a well-known Ukrainian explorer who had a dream to create a therapeutic and adventure project for children from the frontline zones of Donbas – an expedition to the Himalayas. This dream seemed so beautiful and important to me that I wanted to join in. Valentyn launched an open call and received a lot of letters and videos from teenagers telling about their lives, dreams and motivations for participation. Together with Valentyn, we travelled to Donbas and met with many different children. And after the selection of the five teenagers who were the most motivated, passionate and bright among the others, I began to dive deeper into their lives. And the more time I spent with them, the more the angle of this story changed for me, the more important the everyday life of teenagers in Donbas, their dreams, their struggle for them became. I wanted to show the world through their eyes, to give this film a teenage spirit, tenderness, emotionality. And besides, in these young people I saw a new generation that could change this old world in Donbas. I began to think about the much smaller place of the Himalayan expedition in this story; it became something more metaphorical, symbolic. It's not just about conquering physical mountaintops; it's about conquering your own inner mountains; about the obstacles you have to overcome to achieve your dreams. This film was supposed to be about realised kids’ dreams, but unfortunately it became also about broken dreams. Because of the full-scale Russian invasion, the world I was filming no longer exists, it has been destroyed and occupied, and this film is its last document. It's about the last light glimpses of this world before it is swallowed up by darkness. In the time your film is set in, the thought of traveling to Nepal on a Himalayan expedition sounds like science fiction. Following the preparations for the trip, the not at all naive circumstances in which they took place and the expedition itself, did you want to send a message to all the teenagers of the world to look for the light within themselves and not to give up on their dreams even in the worst times? I really thought about it a lot when I was making this film. I myself grew up in the grey metallurgical city of Zaporizhzhia, often called the Ukrainian Detroit, a few hours' drive from where my characters lived. My parents worked hard at a metal factory. We survived the hell of the economic collapse of the 1990s: unemployment, no food, poverty. When I was a teenager, I dreamed to get out of there, like many of my friends. We were poor, but we were dreamers, just like my characters, teenagers from Donbas. And that's how you can protect yourself from the sadness and the greyness. I understand well how many teenagers can face the same challenges, so for me, it's a very universal story and I think it can speak to many teenagers around the world. It's about that no matter in which hole in the world you grew up, in which circumstances, if you have light inside you, if you have a dream, you can light up any darkness around you. "As children, we are eternal", once wrote Tonino Guerra, Federico Fellini’s scriptwriter. I was always thinking about this while making this film. This is a beautiful age when the world and life have no ends, and everything is possible, and you can find your personal paradise even in a poor hell. A very close bond has developed between you and your characters. Some moments in the film are so charged with emotions that the viewer gets a lump in his throat. The moment when Liza cries moved by the beauty of nature is incredible. How did you feel shooting that beautiful, fairy-tale scene? In fact, this scene has a long background and the time I spent with Liza. What is always important for me in documentary filmmaking is time, time spent with the characters, time spent in their reality. I often joked that I had actually become a bit of a teenager myself after such a long period of time with my characters. I wanted to be a part of their world. We went through a lot together, I saw their first loves, suffering, frustrations, conflicts with parents and friends, we went to parties together, raced motorbikes, went on various adventures. I think this closeness allows us to open the characters more deeply, to see the world through their eyes. It creates a strong inner connection and trust. So, I can say that I empathised with everything Liza felt in that sensitive moment in the Himalayas. In fact, I wanted to cry with her at that moment. I think we all felt something similar. For me, this scene is about the ability to see, perceive, and feel beauty. And this ability is also very much connected with the inner world of a person, the beauty of this world. All these teenagers had this beauty inside them. The music in your film is beautiful and very important. It leaves the impression that it was seriously worked on and that special attention was paid to it. Tell us more about the choice of music. From the very beginning, we realised that the film had to be musical, because music was a very important part of teenagers' lives, the world of teenagers is very musical; music was everywhere. Music for teenagers often helps to express emotions, to live their emotions, to release them. Lera always went for a walk alone with headphones in her ears. But it was difficult to use real music from their world, it was different for each of them, and it turned out to be quite inorganic, cacophonic. We wanted to unite everyone with this common inner voice of teenagers, to create a unified musical space and emotions. These songs contain the tones of their dreams, hopes, sadness, melancholy, anxiety, joy, all the things that are sometimes so difficult to describe in words... It was a long and complex creative work. We worked with a young talented Polish composer Wojtek Frycz, who had a very sensual perception and feel for the film. And most of the lyrics and phrases in the songs are actually based on the lyrics of Ruslan, one of the film's characters, who raps. I'm usually very musically minimalistic in my films and I'm very cautious about music in documentaries. It is often used as a crutch. Here's a sad moment - let's add a violin. But in this film, we had to create a kind of whole inner universe of emotions for the characters through music, and it was very interesting. Your film will open this year's competition program - documentary film of the Sarajevo Film Festival. The Bosnian Herzegovinian audience, unfortunately, has rich wartime experience. What kind of reception and understanding of your film do you expect here in Sarajevo? My feelings about Sarajevo, Bosnia, are very much connected to my first visit here in October 2019. It was an advocacy trip for me as part of a group of women who survived violence and torture in captivity caused by the war in Donbas that began in 2014. We met with Bosnian women who had also experienced all this years ago. We talked a lot about the points of intersection of our common painful experience. We cried listening to each other's stories and felt such a strong connection. It was an incredibly moving meeting. Back then, I wrote "Bosnia... with such incredible mountain landscapes and unbearably sad stories behind them, with a war that is over, but which does not let anyone forget..." Now, unfortunately, this common traumatic experience has become even more and there are more common reflections. So, I feel that our film will resonate with the audience in Sarajevo not only because of the similar painful experience, but also because of the importance of a common fight against evil, for its punishment and for justice. And despite the sad background, the film still brings light and hope, and I believe that the Bosnian Herzegovinian audience will also deeply empathise with this. Marinela Domančić There is so much beauty in your film, both in the way you used camera to show the outside beauty of the nature and in the way you showed the inner beauty that radiates from souls of five teenagers. Somehow, I can't shake the impression that you filmed something different from what you intended to record. Did you come to Dombas because of these five kids, or did you meet them there? It all started in October 2018 with a meeting with Valentyn, a well-known Ukrainian explorer who had a dream to create a therapeutic and adventure project for children from the frontline zones of Donbas – an expedition to the Himalayas. This dream seemed so beautiful and important to me that I wanted to join in. Valentyn launched an open call and received a lot of letters and videos from teenagers telling about their lives, dreams and motivations for participation. Together with Valentyn, we travelled to Donbas and met with many different children. And after the selection of the five teenagers who were the most motivated, passionate and bright among the others, I began to dive deeper into their lives. And the more time I spent with them, the more the angle of this story changed for me, the more important the everyday life of teenagers in Donbas, their dreams, their struggle for them became. I wanted to show the world through their eyes, to give this film a teenage spirit, tenderness, emotionality. And besides, in these young people I saw a new generation that could change this old world in Donbas. I began to think about the much smaller place of the Himalayan expedition in this story; it became something more metaphorical, symbolic. It's not just about conquering physical mountaintops; it's about conquering your own inner mountains; about the obstacles you have to overcome to achieve your dreams. This film was supposed to be about realised kids’ dreams, but unfortunately it became also about broken dreams. Because of the full-scale Russian invasion, the world I was filming no longer exists, it has been destroyed and occupied, and this film is its last document. It's about the last light glimpses of this world before it is swallowed up by darkness. In the time your film is set in, the thought of traveling to Nepal on a Himalayan expedition sounds like science fiction. Following the preparations for the trip, the not at all naive circumstances in which they took place and the expedition itself, did you want to send a message to all the teenagers of the world to look for the light within themselves and not to give up on their dreams even in the worst times? I really thought about it a lot when I was making this film. I myself grew up in the grey metallurgical city of Zaporizhzhia, often called the Ukrainian Detroit, a few hours' drive from where my characters lived. My parents worked hard at a metal factory. We survived the hell of the economic collapse of the 1990s: unemployment, no food, poverty. When I was a teenager, I dreamed to get out of there, like many of my friends. We were poor, but we were dreamers, just like my characters, teenagers from Donbas. And that's how you can protect yourself from the sadness and the greyness. I understand well how many teenagers can face the same challenges, so for me, it's a very universal story and I think it can speak to many teenagers around the world. It's about that no matter in which hole in the world you grew up, in which circumstances, if you have light inside you, if you have a dream, you can light up any darkness around you. "As children, we are eternal", once wrote Tonino Guerra, Federico Fellini’s scriptwriter. I was always thinking about this while making this film. This is a beautiful age when the world and life have no ends, and everything is possible, and you can find your personal paradise even in a poor hell. A very close bond has developed between you and your characters. Some moments in the film are so charged with emotions that the viewer gets a lump in his throat. The moment when Liza cries moved by the beauty of nature is incredible. How did you feel shooting that beautiful, fairy-tale scene? In fact, this scene has a long background and the time I spent with Liza. What is always important for me in documentary filmmaking is time, time spent with the characters, time spent in their reality. I often joked that I had actually become a bit of a teenager myself after such a long period of time with my characters. I wanted to be a part of their world. We went through a lot together, I saw their first loves, suffering, frustrations, conflicts with parents and friends, we went to parties together, raced motorbikes, went on various adventures. I think this closeness allows us to open the characters more deeply, to see the world through their eyes. It creates a strong inner connection and trust. So, I can say that I empathised with everything Liza felt in that sensitive moment in the Himalayas. In fact, I wanted to cry with her at that moment. I think we all felt something similar. For me, this scene is about the ability to see, perceive, and feel beauty. And this ability is also very much connected with the inner world of a person, the beauty of this world. All these teenagers had this beauty inside them. The music in your film is beautiful and very important. It leaves the impression that it was seriously worked on and that special attention was paid to it. Tell us more about the choice of music. From the very beginning, we realised that the film had to be musical, because music was a very important part of teenagers' lives, the world of teenagers is very musical; music was everywhere. Music for teenagers often helps to express emotions, to live their emotions, to release them. Lera always went for a walk alone with headphones in her ears. But it was difficult to use real music from their world, it was different for each of them, and it turned out to be quite inorganic, cacophonic. We wanted to unite everyone with this common inner voice of teenagers, to create a unified musical space and emotions. These songs contain the tones of their dreams, hopes, sadness, melancholy, anxiety, joy, all the things that are sometimes so difficult to describe in words... It was a long and complex creative work. We worked with a young talented Polish composer Wojtek Frycz, who had a very sensual perception and feel for the film. And most of the lyrics and phrases in the songs are actually based on the lyrics of Ruslan, one of the film's characters, who raps. I'm usually very musically minimalistic in my films and I'm very cautious about music in documentaries. It is often used as a crutch. Here's a sad moment - let's add a violin. But in this film, we had to create a kind of whole inner universe of emotions for the characters through music, and it was very interesting. Your film will open this year's competition program - documentary film of the Sarajevo Film Festival. The Bosnian Herzegovinian audience, unfortunately, has rich wartime experience. What kind of reception and understanding of your film do you expect here in Sarajevo? My feelings about Sarajevo, Bosnia, are very much connected to my first visit here in October 2019. It was an advocacy trip for me as part of a group of women who survived violence and torture in captivity caused by the war in Donbas that began in 2014. We met with Bosnian women who had also experienced all this years ago. We talked a lot about the points of intersection of our common painful experience. We cried listening to each other's stories and felt such a strong connection. It was an incredibly moving meeting. Back then, I wrote "Bosnia... with such incredible mountain landscapes and unbearably sad stories behind them, with a war that is over, but which does not let anyone forget..." Now, unfortunately, this common traumatic experience has become even more and there are more common reflections. So, I feel that our film will resonate with the audience in Sarajevo not only because of the similar painful experience, but also because of the importance of a common fight against evil, for its punishment and for justice. And despite the sad background, the film still brings light and hope, and I believe that the Bosnian Herzegovinian audience will also deeply empathise with this. Marinela Domančić
The last light glimpses
In the realm of Alisa Kovalenko's cinematic creation, a symphony of beauty unfolds, capturing not only the breathtaking allure of nature through her camera lens but also the inner radiance emanating from the souls of five teenagers.
Mark Cousins, reditelj i scenarist, Šejla Kamerić i Jovan Marjanović, direktor Sarajevo Film Festivala / Mark Cousins, director and writer, Šejla Kamerić i Jovan Marjanović, director of Sarajevo Film Festivala
Bono, Bill Carter, Jovan Marjanović i Mirsad Purivatra na crvenom tepihu / Bono, Bill Carter, Jovan Marjanović and Mirsad Purivatra on the red carpet
Foto galerija / Photo gallery
Više fotografija možete pronaći OVDJE. More festival photos you can find HERE.
BH TELECOM Ljetno kino Mostar / BH TELECOM Open Air Cinema Mostar
Bingo Ljetno kino Tuzla / Bingo Open Air Cinema Tuzla
Mark Cousins, dobitnik nagrade Počasno Srce Sarajeva 29. Sarajevo FIlm Festivala / Mark Cousins, recipients of the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award 29. Sarajevo Film Festival
Bono na crvenom tepihu / Bono on the Red Carpet
The Edge na crvenom tepihu / The Edge on the Red Carpet
OPALO LIŠĆE priča je o dvoje usamljenih ljudi koji se slučajno sreću jedne noći u Helsinkiju i pokušaju pronaći svoju prvu, jedinu i vječitu ljubav. Ostvarivanje tog časnog cilja otežava činjenica da je muškarac alkoholičar, ali i izgubljeni telefonski brojevi, to što zaboravljaju kako se ono drugo zove i gdje živi, te generalna sklonost života da pred ljude koji traže sreću stavlja prepreke. Ova nježna tragikomedija, za koju se ranije vjerovalo da je izgubljena, svojevsrtan je nastavak trilogije o radničkoj klasi Akija Kaurismäkija. FALLEN LEAVES tells the story of two lonely people who meet by chance in the Helsinki night and try to find the first, only, and ultimate love of their lives. Their path towards this honourable goal is clouded by the man's alcoholism, lost phone numbers, their not knowing each other's names or addresses, and life's general tendency to place obstacles in the way of those seeking happiness. This gentle tragicomedy, previously thought to be lost, is a fourth instalment following on from director Aki Kaurismäki's “Working Class” trilogy.
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OPALO LIŠĆE / FALLEN LEAVES Finland, Germany, 2023, 81 min., Režija / Director: Aki Kaurismäki, Uloge / Cast: Alma Pöysti, Jussi Vatanen, Janne Hyytiäinen, Nuppu Koivu Dupont, Mads Mikkelsen, Mads Mikkelsen
LOST COUNTRY Serbia, France, Croatia, Luxembourg, Qatar, 2023, 98 min. Režija / Director: Vladimir Perišić Uloge / Cast: Jovan Ginić, Jasna Đuričić, Miodrag Jovanović, Lazar Ković, Pavle Čemerikić
Srbija, godina 1996. Tokom studentskih demonstracija protiv Miloševićevog režima petnaestogodišnji Stefan prisiljen je sprovesti najtežu od svih revolucija. Stefan se mora suočiti sa svojom voljenom majkom koja je glasnogovornica i saučesnica korumpirane vlasti protiv koje njegovi prijatelji protestvuju. Serbia, 1996. During the student demonstrations against the Milosević regime, fifteen-year-old Stefan has to go through the hardest revolution of all. He has to confront his beloved mother, spokesperson for and accomplice of the corrupted government his friends are rising up against.
TAKMIČARSKI PROGRAM - IGRANI FILM / COMPETITON PROGRAMME - FEATURE FILM
OPEN AIR
TAKMIČARSKI DOKUMENTARNI / cOMPETITION DOCUMENTAIRES
PRETPREMIJERE SERIJE / AVANT PREMIERE SERIEs
Miki se vraća iz Eleja sa prekrasnom Amerikankom Kate i idejom da je kod kuće slavan. Ovdje ga se niko ne sjeća, no jedna lokalna televizija stalno vrti njegove spotove. Miki ponesen kupuje televizijsku stanicu i postaje direktor maloj ekipi TV (ne)radnika. Miki returns from Los Angeles with a beautiful American woman and an idea in his head that, back home, he is famous. Nobody in his hometown remembers him, however, even though a local TV channel runs his old music videos on a loop. Carried away, Miki buys the channel and starts to manage a small crew of television (non)workers.
MI NEĆEMO NESTATI / WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY Ukraine, France, Poland, United States, 2023, 100 min. Režija / Director: Alisa Kovalenko
Grupa tinejdžera iz Donbasa nadomak je zrelosti i sanjaju da osvoje svijet. Iako su udaljeni zvuci pucnjave i eksplozija dio zvučne kulise njihovih života, oni ne gube nadu. Buntovni su, skloni avanturama, ulaze u minska polja i sunčaju se kraj lokalnog jezera. Sanjaju o bijegu ne samo od rata već, kao svi tinejdžeri na svijetu, i od dosade života u malom gradu. A onda, iznenada, pruža im se prilika da krenu na dugo putovanje do Nepala. Da li će se njihov san o osvajanju svijeta ostvariti? A group of teenagers from Donbas are entering adulthood, and dream of conquering the world. Although they can hear gunshots and explosions in the distance, they do not lose hope. They rebel, ride on the waves of adventure, walk into minefields, and sunbathe by a local lake. They dream of escaping not only from the war but also—like teenagers all over the world—from the boredom of living in a small town. Then, unexpectedly, an opportunity arises for them to embark on a long journey all the way to Nepal. Will their dream of conquering the world come true?
PRINC IZ ELEJA / SAMSHING IT Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023, 52 min., Kreatori / Creators: Amra Bakšić Čamo, Elma Tataragić, Dušan Vranić, Enes Zlatar, Direktor / Director: Alen Šimić Uloge / Cast: Alen Muratović, Nadine Mičić, Mediha Musliović, Mirvad Kurić, Moamer Kasumović, Džana Pinjo, Mario Drmać, Emir Zumbul Kapetanović, Slaven Vidak, Sabit Sejdinović